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Snake's Top 25 Grunge Albums
25. Yield - Pearl Jam (1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo1zf0m2QfQ Star Tracks: Wishlist, Do the Evolution After three straight amazing albums, No Code was the first PJ album to not really click with me. I felt like they lost a lot of the success that made them such a great band in the first place. Yield, however, is a strong comeback that harkens back to the classic PJ sound while experimenting with a few new styles. A lot of the album has a strong punk rock feel to it, especially the opening track and Do the Evolution, my favorite of the album. Ballads like Wishlist call back to the success of songs like Black, which Vedder especially thrives on. 24. Bricks Are Heavy - L7 (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi4kmUvPgTA Star Tracks: Wargasm, Pretend We're Dead, Shitlist Successfully combining heavy metal, dirty punk rock, and grunge together, L7's Bricks Are Heavy is an amazing multi-genre album that definitely put L7 on the map. The coined "grunge girls" specialized in short but sweet tracks that put the filth in grunge. Pretend We're Dead is one of the best songs to come out of the grunge era period, as well one of the most famous. It is just a generally fun album to listen to. 23. Bleach - Nirvana (1989) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgexxKf_tXE Star Tracks: Floyd the Barber, About a Girl, School One of the earliest Grunge albums by the fathers of the genre, Nirvana's Bleach exemplifies grunge with simple yet strikingly atmospheric riffs and vocals. The songs are all entirely dark and evoke a real sense of anger and claustrophobia whilst dealing with the subjects of Cobain's life at the time. It's a truly unique album, nothing after is truly like it. 22. King Animal - Soundgarden (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpE0oG7_e4M Star Tracks: Been Away Too Long, Blood on the Valley Floor One of the few modern day examples of grunge left, Soundgarden's King Animal still proves that not only are they still the masters of the genre, but that straight-up grunge can still thrive in a world of generic post-grunge and soulless pop acts. The opening track describes this mood perfectly; grunge truly has been away for too long. King Animal is Soundgarden doing what they do best, specializing in the most atmospheric and profound songs in the genre. 21. Four - Seaweed (1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMxpTdJsK-o&list=PL643C83E0538E7EC4 Star Tracks: Losing Skin, Chalk the Cracks, One Inch Punch Criminally overlooked, Four isn't so much a refreshing take on the genre but rather an album that successfully sticks with the formula but still produces memorable songs nonetheless. The fact that they didn't try anything new may be the reason they are overlooked, but honestly, the grunge explosion allowed Seaweed to take a hold of the reigns and just make some great songs. 20. Facelift - Alice in Chains (1990) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG-u2mAn8v8 Star Tracks: Man in the Box, Bleed the Freak With leaning towards the heavy metal side, Facelift nonetheless served as a great precursor to the coming grunge explosion and was important in establishing a few of the genre rules. While I think the album lacks a bit of the moody edge of the future albums, Facelift is a pretty headbanging album with some extremely fun songs. 19. In Utero - Nirvana (1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZfh-aNBy00 Star Tracks: Heart-Shaped Box, Rape Me, Dumb, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, All Apologies Unhappy with the booming success of Nevermind, Nirvana went back to their Bleach roots and created an album that upon first listen, is very rough and initially very unpleasing to the ears. But listening again and again, the album is very nuanced and harshly critical which is an important part of grunge. Nirvana certainly took a heavy risk with this album, but in the end, I think it paid off nicely. 18. Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden (1991) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTWlUIIiUNI Star Tracks: Rusty Cage, Slaves & Bulldozers, Searching with My Good Eye Closed In the same vein as Alice in Chains, Soundgarden started off with a real heavy metal sound that was angsty, bleak, and most importantly to me, super-atmospheric. Rusty Cage is another of the genre's most famous songs, and for good reason, as it is the most exemplary I think of Soundgarden's principal style of infusing meaning into rollicking fun great songs. 17. Ten - Pearl Jam (1991) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xXp_XJzgC4 Star Tracks: Even Flow, Alive, Black, Jeremy Rather than go loud and proud with heavy metal styling like their peers at the time, Pearl Jam's Ten goes decidedly lower-key and features very softer songs than other bands were offering at the time. Eddie Vedder is one of the best grunge vocalists, putting so much soul into every single of the songs. When Vedder does get angry, like in Jeremy, it's a true spectacle to behold and you can't pull your ears away. And that's the best kind of grunge, the type that makes you really feel the emotions of the singer. 16. Vs. - Pearl Jam (1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoLL6R48NoM Star Tracks: Daughter, Glorified G, Dissident, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town Following up the success of Ten, Vs. is a fantastic album chock-full of meaningful and emotional songs. Vs. builds on the fun and funky riffs of Ten, overlaying with Vedder's fantastic vocal work once more. The scope of Vs. is larger and more well-realized than Ten in my opinion, and has a lot more to offer than the sometimes samey feeling of Ten. 15. Jar of Flies - Alice in Chains (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO3Arj75PnM Star Tracks: Rotten Apple, No Excuses, Don't Follow One of the best EPs ever released, AIC's Jar of Flies is an overwhelmingly heartfelt effort by the band with songs that strike right at the emotional core. These songs seriously almost bring tears to my eyes. Cantrell and Staley prove themselves to be one of the best vocal duos of all time, and the songs seriously wouldn't be the same without this vocal harmonizing. Alice in Chains really separated themselves from the pack with this EP and it is truly some of their best work. 14. Sixteen Stone - Bush (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFkTSPjER6o Star Tracks: Everything Zen, Comedown, Machinehead, Glycerine Similar to Seaweed, Bush found success in doing what grunge did best and hey, some amazing songs came out of it. Still, Bush was also a bit odd and off-kilter, with zany riffs and great word-play in their lyrics. Everything Zen is easily the best example of this. Bush would the find the same kind of success in future albums, but Sixteen Stone is the benchmark for Bush. 13. Above - Mad Season (1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zYuNSWfio8 Star Tracks: River of Deceit, Long Gone Day, All Alone The supergroup Mad Season was a collaboration come true, and their amazing work is shown in all its glory in the album Above. With the bluesy work of Layne Staley combined with talents from Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees, Above was the fine result of the right chemicals coming together. My favorite of the album is easily Long Gone Day, a emotionally-gripping ride with amazing duo vocals between Staley and assistant Mark Lanegan. Truly underrated and very deserving of a listen. 12. Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop - Stone Temple Pilots (1996) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwtIUiNYAg Star Tracks: Big Bang Baby, Lady Picture Show, Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart The album starts with muzak that you would probably hear in a gift shop, true to the album's title. What follows is an oddball collection of songs that are each tiny stories in their own right. The songs are catchy and not terribly dark, but are just a fun and quirky collection of songs that are all really unique. Just like the collection of items in a gift shop! 11. Purple - Stone Temple Pilots (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5nOk9pqNNw Star Tracks: Meatplow, Lounge Fly, Interstate Love Song, Big Empty STP's follow-up to Core was different, but it had an amazing selection of songs that gave the album it's own separate identity from Core. Once again, it's Weiland's great vocals that brings the album to life, and almost no songs sound alike, showing Weiland's fantastic range. My favorite song of the grunge era, Interstate Love Song, is featured on this album. It's a great country-esque tune and a strangely freeing song. 10. Eve 6 - Eve 6 (1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwtIUiNYAg Star Tracks: Inside Out, Leech, Open Road Song It's a shame that Eve 6 never really got the commerical success that I think they deserved. Eve 6's songwriting is amazingly strong, and features some of the best wordplay and themes in the genre. Their self-titled debut features this strongly, everyone knows Inside Out, but Leech and Open Road song have it too. Eve 6 combines this strong songwriting with catchy riffs and a compelling vocal storyteller in Max Collins. 9. Nevermind - Nirvana (1991) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLqqZEm6sfA Star Tracks: In Bloom, Come As You Are, Polly, On a Plain Yeah, you all know it, it's hard not to love, it's basically the progenitor and kickstarter of the genre: Nirvana's Nevermind. Suddenly, grunge was mainstream and a million copycats emerged. Of course, Nevermind is a musically sound album that basically defines a generation. Maybe the songs are overplayed and have diminished impact, but there's no denying how much of a game changer this album truly was and the songs are still catchy and addictive as hell. 8. MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFNMJdJjVBc Star Tracks: About a Girl, The Man Who Sold the World, Lake of Fire, Where Did You Sleep Last Night The MTV Unplugged series always had this weird ominous feeling about them. This album was released after the death of Cobain, and the performances have an added level of hauntingness to them because of this fact. The atmosphere of this live album is somewhat quiet; the focus is all on the performances. This album reanimated previous songs in new and exciting ways, even improving on them in many ways. Cobain also brought a lot of his own musical passion here, covering a few of his own favorites. It's a beautiful live album and an ode to a great legacy. 7. Down on the Upside - Soundgarden (1996) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK-E71elbEU Star Tracks: Pretty Noose, Blow Up the Outside World, Burden In My Hand Down on the Upside was a proper sequel to Superunknown, building upon that album's riffs and lyrical themes and creating yet another beautifully profound album. Cornell's vocals are as haunting as ever, and the instruments build up a nice mood throughout the album. Some songs get a little experimental, but it all works wonderfully. 6. Vitalogy - Pearl Jam (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws8fUX_UUTc Star Tracks: Nothingman, Corduroy, Better Man With their third album, Pearl Jam had fully perfected their craft, creating their most solid album to date. The songs are all near perfect, there is no wasted space on this album. While it still has its share of rocking songs, Vedder also toned it back quite a bit with more slow songs, like Nothingman. It's the Pearl Jam sound at its best, hands down. 5. Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains (1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qhxGU1_2hA Star Tracks: Sludge Factory, Heaven Beside You, Frogs, Over Now The last studio album to feature Layne Staley, Alice in Chains is a dooming and haunting send-off to the band in its current state at the time. Once again, AIC proves themselves masters of the grunge attitude, with a persistently looming sense of dread and despair throughout the album. The lyrics deal with depression, drug abuse, death and anger. Layne's brand of anger and personal problems was the perfect benchmark to build an album around. This is one of the most passionate albums I've ever heard. 4. Unplugged - Alice in Chains (1996) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwS0OwGnE2o Star Tracks: Nutshell, Would?, Over Now My favorite live performance of all time, Unplugged is at the same time so sad and yet so mesmerizing to watch. A clearly sick Layne nonetheless powers his way through great performance after great performance. AIC is just amazing acoustic. Cantrell aids along of course, and their vocal harmony is as powerful than ever. The set is punctuated by great audience reactions and a few jokes from Chains themselves. It's both a happy and sad performance, and easily the most haunting unplugged performance in the stable. 3. Core - Stone Temple Pilots (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr_tkSYIObo Star Tracks: Sex Type Thing, Plush, Crackerman Core may have been criticized for going too mainstream with the grunge sound, but to me, this only boosts Core's memorability tenfold. Weiland's vocals are rough and catchy, the riffs solid and catchy as well, and Core has a lot to say about a few subjects, including rape and murder. Plush is easily the stand out track on the album, and another one of my favorite songs of all time. 2. Dirt - Alice in Chains (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JecMnBoYI Star Tracks: Them Bones, Dam That River, Rooster, Down in a Hole, Would? Released on the same day as Core, Dirt presented a different take on the grunge concept. AIC decided to ease up on the metal aspect slightly, focusing more on the dirty sound of loud guitars that meshed well with the bluesy vocals of Layne. Lyrics were deadly, disturbing, and realistic, and paints a grim picture of Layne's and Cantrell's personal lives. Rooster is one of the greatest war songs ever written. Dirt is a very personal album, delving deep into the psyche of men and it's something you'll never forget. 1. Superunknown - Soundgarden (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5JTWxuYE8 Star Tracks: My Wave, Fell on Black Days, Limo Wreck, The Day I Tried to Live, 4th of July, (the whole damn album) Superunknown IS grunge. It's what I think of when I hear the word. With it's appropriately dark cover art, it's fantastically deep and profound songs that touch on all matter of subjects, Cornell's self-harmonizing voice, doomy and groovy solos that range from drum to guitar. I want to put on this album and set alone in a dark room, just taking it all in. It is one of the most atmospheric albums I've ever heard in my life. It envelops you in its music and lyrics, making you think while you listen. Grunge has never came close to being this perfect ever again, and it's why it's my favorite grunge album of all time and one of my favorite albums period. Category:User Projects